October 3, 2017
Small business owners are overworked and struggle to take a break
A poll from software firm FreeAgent, published to tie in with National Work Life Week, claims that many self-employed people in the UK are working excessively long hours without taking any holidays. In the poll of more than 500 freelancers and micro-business owners, nearly a third of respondents (30 percent) said they worked more than 48 hours per week on their business, while 5 percent admitted that they spent more than 64 hours each week working. A separate poll carried out earlier this year by the same firm claimed that more than a third (38 percent) of respondents said they had not felt able to take a week or more’s worth of holiday in the previous six months.
UK workers are largely optimistic about the impact automation will have in the workplace, with three in four believing it will give them more time to concentrate on their primary job duties and work more flexibly, claims new research. Workfront’s annual State of Enterprise Work report, which aims to capture not only how work is being done and what challenges office workers see in the present, but also how they see current workplace trends playing out in the near future reveals that 84 percent agreed with the sentiment that “the use of automation in the workplace will let us think of work in new and innovative ways.” 82 percent expressed excitement at the chance “to learn new things as the workforce moves toward more automation;” and while the overwhelming view on automation was positive, around 2 in 5 (38 percent) feared that rising automation will place humans and robots in competition for the same jobs in the future.
The majority of UK employees (61 percent) do not feel encouraged by their employer to lead an active lifestyle, despite most managers agreeing that exercise positively impacts employees’ productivity (78 percent) and their ability to handle stress (82 percent) claims new research from AXA PPP healthcare. Of those British employees who do exercise after work, nearly half (46 percent) would prefer to do so before work but 79 percent blame a lack of time in the morning; yet for those who find time to be physically active before work, three quarters (75 percent) feel it spurs them on to be more effective in the morning while 69 percent feel more productive. More worryingly, nearly half of employees (45 percent) of employees admit they do not do the NHS recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise, five times a week, but finding time to be physically active during the working day can be difficult, or undesirable. Sixty?two percent of employees with good intentions to exercise at work find they’re cancelling their lunchtime exercise plans due to workload or work commitments.
The majority of North American office workers expect their employers to provide technology that allows them to work from wherever they choose and three quarter of employees (74 percent) would rather leave their job to work for an organisation that would allow them to work remotely more often, even if their salary stayed the same. This is because working remotely has moved from being a work perk to a necessity of 21
